Asked by: Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government when they will publish their Social Care regulatory reform programme and what new protected professional medical titles they are considering introducing.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
There are no plans to publish a social care regulatory reform programme. However, the Government has consulted on its proposed approach to modernising the legislation of the professional health and care regulators. As part of this work, we will consider whether to make any changes to the medical titles protected in law. Any proposals will be subject to statutory consultation, and the affirmative parliamentary process.
The Anaesthesia Associates and Physician Associates Order 2024 was made on 13 March 2024, and will bring Aanaesthesia Associates and Physician Associates into regulation by the General Medical Council (GMC), under a reformed regulatory framework. We are currently working on the next phase of reform, which includes introducing a new regulatory framework for medical practitioners. The future GMC order relating to the medical profession will be drafted and published for consultation in due course.
Asked by: Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many NHS boards have included sustainability in their assurance framework.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
It is the legal duty for integrated care boards (ICBs) and their partner National Health Service foundation trusts under section 14Z44 of the NHS Act 2006 to consider sustainability when exercising their functions. ICBs and their partner NHS foundation trusts must consider section 1 of the Climate Change Act 2008, concerning United Kingdom net zero emission targets, and section 5 of the Environment Act 2021, concerning environmental targets. ICBs and their NHS foundation trusts must also adapt to any current or predicted impact of climate change identified in the most recent report under section 56 of the Climate Change Act 2008.
NHS England does not collect data on how many ICBs have included sustainability in their assurance framework.
Asked by: Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the report Antibiotic underdosing and disposal in NHS organisations across Great Britain, published in November 2023; and what discussions they have had with the Care Quality Commission on integrating line flushing policies and practices into the assessment framework for care provided in England.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Officials are aware of, and have considered, the findings of the report Antibiotic underdosing and disposal in NHS organisations across Great Britain. Officials from the Department have not had any recent discussions with the Care Quality Commission on integrating line flushing policies and practices into the assessment framework for care provided in England.
General guidance on prescribing and the use of medicines is published by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence in an online-only format. Good clinical practice is to flush an intravenous line with saline after a medicine has been administered, to ensure the full dose is delivered to the patient. This is not unique to antibiotics.
Asked by: Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what progress they have made towards the new regulatory system for health and care professionals; and which protected professional titles they are considering in scope of these regulations.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Anaesthesia Associates and Physician Associates Order 2024 was made on 13 March 2024 which will bring anaesthesia associates and physician associates into regulation by the General Medical Council under a reformed regulatory framework. We are currently working on the next phase of reform, which will introduce a new regulatory framework for medical practitioners and the professions regulated by the Nursing and Midwifery Council and the Health and Care Professions Council.
As part of the Government’s regulatory reform programme, protected titles will be considered more broadly, as we take forward legislation for each regulator.
Asked by: Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure minimal usage of helium in MRI scanners in NHS facilities in the light of the global shortage of helium; and what steps they are taking to ensure all helium in scanners being replaced is reused appropriately.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Suppliers of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanners are moving to a sealed helium solution, whereby the helium required to cool the magnet is approximately 0.5% of the current levels. These sealed systems will also ensure MRI scanners do not require further helium to be added during years of operational use.
Furthermore, suppliers are now replacing MRI scanners without requiring the magnet to be replaced, though this is only available for the first replacement cycle, whereby the scanner is fully replaced, but the existing magnet and helium are retained.
With regards to the Department, as set out in the recent Medical Technology Strategy: One Year On publication, the Design for Life Programme has been stood up to work with industry, the health and care sector, and academic partners to develop medical technology systems that support reuse, remanufacture, and material recovery becoming the default. This includes developing regulatory, commercial, digital, and policy environments that support this aim. The Department’s intention is to publish a roadmap later this year to articulate our relevant findings and plans moving forward.
Asked by: Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what contracts NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care have with The Phoenix Partnership and for what services; and what assessment they have made of the appropriateness of it providing such services.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department is the contracting authority for two consecutive framework agreements on which The Phoenix Partnership (TPP) has been appointed as a supplier, and awarded call-off contracts. These frameworks are the GP Systems of Choice (GPSoC), from 2014, and the GP IT Futures framework agreement (GPITF FA), which succeeded the GPSoC in 2020. The GPITF FA is the main contractual framework to supply IT systems and services to general practices (GPs) and associated organisations in England. The GPITF FA is operationally managed by NHS England, and the relevant contracting authorities under the call-off contracts are the individual integrated care boards, who contract on behalf of GPs.
In addition to managing the GPITF FA on behalf of the Department, NHS England is the contracting authority on three active contracts with TPP for: GP IT development and compliance; provision of Point of Care services to the NHS England Vaccination Programme; and provision of IT services to residential places of detention under the Health and Justice Information Systems contract.
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has a statutory requirement to report on the performance of the national immunisation programmes, and in June 2022, TPP was awarded a contract to extract this data directly from GPs' systems for the UKHSA, with a successor contract being awarded for the same work in October 2023. All Government contracts are awarded fairly and transparently, in line with the Public Contracts Regulations 2015. All decisions on contracts are rigorously scrutinised to assess a company’s ability to perform and deliver the best value for money for the taxpayer.
Asked by: Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Markham on 25 March (HL2978), why they have specified how physician associates (PAs) are to be used, specifically with undifferentiated patients, rather than allowing GP practices to make their own decisions about the use of PAs.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Physician Associates (PAs) work within a defined scope of practice and limits of competence. NHS England has provided recent guidance on the use of PAs in general practice (GP) teams. As set out in the Network Contract Directed Enhanced Service, PAs should be adequately supervised by a GP when providing care for undifferentiated patients.
In terms of employment choices, GPs are self-employed contractors to the National Health Service, and it is largely up to employers to determine how best to staff their primary care network or GP, to best meet the needs of their population.
Asked by: Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, following the protection of the titles “physician associate” and “anaesthesia associate” under the Anaesthesia Associates and Physician Associates Order 2024, when they plan to provide protection for other medical titles which are not already protected.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
All healthcare professional regulators have protected titles relating to the professions they regulate. There are currently 64 protected titles across 10 professional health and care regulators. The Government’s regulatory reform programme, which is already underway, will consider protected titles more broadly.
Asked by: Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government why the NHS England’s Network Contract Directed Enhanced Service specifies that physician associates employed under the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme have key responsibility for providing first point of contact care for patients presenting with undifferentiated, undiagnosed problems.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Physician Associates have been part of the National Health Service workforce for a number of years. They are an important part of clinical teams across the NHS, providing support to thousands of patients every day, under the supervision of doctors.
The Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme provides funding for a number of additional roles, including Physician Associates, to help create bespoke, multi-disciplinary teams. All these roles are in place to assist general practice (GP) doctors in reducing their workload and assisting patients directly with their needs, allowing doctors to focus on more complex patients and other priorities, including continuity of care. Physician Associates work alongside GPs and the wider practice team to provide care as part of the multidisciplinary team.
Asked by: Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to amend the Additional Role Reimbursement Scheme to allow the scheme to fund additional GPs, and what assessment they have made of the number of GPs now seeking and unable to obtain employment.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme aims to grow and diversify the general practice workforce. The scheme provides funding for 26,000 additional roles in primary care networks, to help create bespoke multi-disciplinary teams. General practitioners are not currently included in the scheme as they are a core role within general practice, and the recruitment of general practitioners is currently funded through global sum. We remain committed to growing the general practice workforce as well as number of doctors in general practice. There were 2,799 more full time equivalent doctors working in general practice in December 2023, compared to December 2019.